The Green Bay Packers, arguably the most storied franchise in the National Football League, were organized on Aug. 11, 1919, in the dingy second-floor editorial rooms of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette building, located on Cherry Street in downtown Green Bay.
Never imagining what might become of the semipro football team being formed that day, nobody documented who was there or how many were on hand. There had been no announcement of the meeting beforehand, and the Press-Gazette provided no details about it the day after.
Whether a full complement of players attended or if it was simply a small gathering of the team’s prime movers was never made clear. Nor was it spelled out if much of the preliminary work had been completed beforehand or if the meeting itself triggered a rapid-fire chain of events.
Whatever the case, the Press-Gazette in its Aug. 13 edition revealed that the Indian Packing Co. would sponsor the team and referred to it for the first time as the “Packers.” The paper said home games would be played at Hagemeister Park; listed 38 prospective candidates for the team, mostly former standouts at Green Bay East and West high schools; and noted full uniforms would be provided to up to 20 players.
“It will be the strongest aggregation of pigskin chasers that has ever been gathered together in this city,” the Press-Gazette proclaimed.
A second meeting was held at the Press-Gazette on Aug. 14, three days after the initial one, and nearly 25 players were in attendance. Curly Lambeau was elected captain of the team, and George Whitney Calhoun was named manager.
Lambeau was a former star at East High School and played on Coach Knute Rockne’s first team at the University of Notre Dame in 1918. Back home after dropping out of school in December, Lambeau was working for Indian Packing at the time. Calhoun, great-grandson of Daniel Whitney, founder of the city of Green Bay, was an editor at the Press-Gazette.
Birth of a Team and a Legend
The Green Bay Packers, arguably the most storied franchise in the National Football League, were organized on Aug. 11, 1919, in the dingy second-floor editorial rooms of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette building, located on Cherry Street in downtown Green Bay.Never imagining what might become of the semipro football team being formed that day, nobody documented who was there or how many were on hand. There had been no announcement of the meeting beforehand, and the Press-Gazette provided no details about it the day after.Whether a full complement of players attended or if it was simply a small gathering of the team’s prime movers was never made clear. Nor was it spelled out if much of the preliminary work had been completed beforehand or if the meeting itself triggered a rapid-fire chain of events.Whatever the case, the Press-Gazette in its Aug. 13 edition revealed that the Indian Packing Co. would sponsor the team and referred to it for the first time as the “Packers.” The paper said home games would be played at Hagemeister Park; listed 38 prospective candidates for the team, mostly former standouts at Green Bay East and West high schools; and noted full uniforms would be provided to up to 20 players
“It will be the strongest aggregation of pigskin chasers that has ever been gathered together in this city,” the Press-Gazette proclaimed.A second meeting was held at the Press-Gazette on Aug. 14, three days after the initial one, and nearly 25 players were in attendance. Curly Lambeau was elected captain of the team, and George Whitney Calhoun was named manager.Lambeau was a former star at East High School and played on Coach Knute Rockne’s first team at the University of Notre Dame in 1918. Back home after dropping out of school in December, Lambeau was working for Indian Packing at the time. Calhoun, great-grandson of Daniel Whitney, founder of the city of Green Bay, was an editor at the Press-Gazette.
The story handed down for decades was that the impetus for the initial meeting was a chance encounter at a downtown street corner between Lambeau and Calhoun. In his 1985 book about the history of the Packers, longtime executive committee member and onetime Calhoun colleague John Torinus changed the setting to a conversation over a glass of beer.
Whether it’s mostly urban legend or if there’s a true story in there somewhere will remain a mystery for the ages. Too much time has passed. But Lambeau and Calhoun have long been regarded as the Packers’ co-founders and there’s little or no evidence to dispute that.
The first season, the Packers won 10 games and lost one against opponents representing mostly nearby towns in northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The team conducted most of its practices that first year on a field next to the Indian Packing plant at the end of Morrow Street, but it played its eight home games at Hagemeister Park on an open field with no fence or bleachers. Calhoun “passed a hat,” as did others, to collect spare change and help cover expenses.
The Packers again played an independent schedule against mostly neighboring towns the next year and again dominated the competition, finishing 9-1-1.
Better yet, their financial outlook improved considerably.
C.M. “Neil” Murphy, a local typewriter salesman, was named business manager in July and organized a committee to build a fence around the Hagemeister playing field so the Packers could charge admission.
Thanks to the support of Indian Packing, the local Association of Commerce, local contractor Ludolf Hansen and fans who provided volunteer labor, construction of the fence began in late August and was completed before the first game in late September.
By mid-October, two large sections of bleachers were erected so fans would no longer have to stand along the sidelines to follow the action.
JOINING THE NFL
On Aug. 27, 1921, the year-old American Professional Football Association awarded a franchise to the Acme Packers of Green Bay during a league meeting in Chicago. The Acme Packing Co., based in Chicago, had purchased Indian Packing eight months earlier. Less than a year later, the APFA would change its name to the National Football League.
Green Bay was now in the big leagues – sort of.
Most of the APFA’s 21 members that second year were located in small hotbeds of football rather than big cities – places like Canton, Ohio, Hammond, Ind., and Rock Island, Ill.
Then again, compared to Green Bay, maybe those were big cities.
Green Bay was the smallest city in the league when it joined in 1921 if you discount a minor technicality – Tonawanda, N.Y., was smaller but its team lasted one game and played on the road – and has been ever since, except for a brief period in the late 1920s.
Green Bay’s population was 31,017 based on the 1920 U.S. Census. Not only was it the smallest city in the league, it was smaller than six other cities in Wisconsin, including Superior and Oshkosh.
No doubt to those who lived through it and also through the lens of history, it’s almost incomprehensible that the Packers survived. They’re closing in on their 100th anniversary, but until they were nudging toward 50 they were perpetually on their deathbed.
Take their first league season, for example.
The Packers pulled off a major coup when they signed lineman Howard “Cub” Buck, a veteran of the famous Canton Bulldogs. They won their inaugural league game against the Minneapolis Marines on Oct. 23, 1921. They were able to book games with the formidable Chicago Staleys (Bears) and Chicago Cardinals. And they finished with a winning record, 3-2-1.
But then scandal nearly doomed all that they had accomplished. On Dec. 4, 1921, in a non-league game against Racine billed as a battle for the state championship, the Packers used three Notre Dame players, with college eligibility remaining, under assumed names and got caught. Less than two months later, Green Bay was booted from the league – albeit not for long.
Thanks to Lambeau’s persistence and the impression Green Bay had made on other club owners during its first season, the Packers were reinstated at the next meeting in June.
The Acme Packing Co. bowed out of the picture at that point, after just one season, and a small group organized as the Green Bay Football Club and headed by Lambeau and Calhoun took control of the franchise.
Plagued by limited resources and terrible weather, the new owners barely survived their first season.
A game against Columbus in early November was played in a driving rain and resulted in a loss of $1,500 when the total rainfall for the day fell three one-hundredths of an inch short of the amount needed for the Packers to collect on their rain insurance. On Thanksgiving, a 12-hour rainfall ruined what was supposed to be Booster Day, contributing to a sparse crowd for a non-league game against Duluth and another financial disaster.
Club officials nearly canceled the game, but were persuaded to play by Andrew Turnbull, one of the owners of the Press-Gazette.
Nearly 25 years later in a three-part series, Calhoun wrote that Nov. 30, 1922, “marked a turning point in the history of the Packers.” He said Turnbull promised that if club officials went ahead and played their game that day, he would get Green Bay’s business community to rally behind the team once the season ended.
True to his word, Turnbull led the effort to create the nonprofit Green Bay Football Corporation before the start of the next season. The Packers were now a community-owned team. Their investors were their fans.
THE PRESENT Packers Football Game
Thompson underwent an intensive nine-day search to tab Mike McCarthy the franchise’s 14th head coach (Jan. 12, 2006).
McCarthy guided the Packers to a resilient four-game winning streak to close his first season as head coach with an 8-8 record, keeping the team in contention for the playoffs until the final weekend of 2006, when mere percentage points dubbed the Giants the NFC’s last postseason qualifier.
McCarthy was disappointed the Packers just missed the playoffs, particularly because the team was as healthy as it had been all season and was playing its best football the last month. But the NFL’s youngest club carried that momentum into 2007, winning its first four games and ultimately tying the then-franchise record for regular-season victories with a 13-3 mark. McCarthy also tied Sherman’s team mark for the most wins by a head coach in his first two seasons (21).
With Joe Philbin taking over as offensive coordinator, Ryan Grant emerging at midseason as a feature back, and Favre enjoying a brilliant final season in Green Bay, the offense finished second in the league, its highest ranking since 1983.
Grant then posted franchise playoff records of 201 rushing yards and three touchdowns in a 42-20 snow-filled NFC playoff triumph over Seattle at Lambeau, but the club’s quest for a fifth Super Bowl appearance came up agonizingly short.
In the third-coldest game in NFL championship history, with a temperature of minus-1 and wind chill of minus-23 at kickoff, Green Bay fell at home, 23-20, in overtime to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game.
In 2008, the torch was passed to Aaron Rodgers from Favre, who retired in March with virtually every significant NFL passing record, un-retired in July and was traded to the New York Jets during the first week of training camp. Rodgers became just the second quarterback in league history to pass for more than 4,000 yards in his first season as a starter, and the offense produced a 4,000-yard passer, 1,200-yard rusher (Grant) and two 1,000-yard receivers (Greg Jennings, Donald Driver) for the first time in team history.
On defense, the team set a franchise record with seven touchdowns, including six on interception returns, leading to Pro Bowl berths for three-fourths of the starting secondary in Nick Collins, Charles Woodson and Al Harris. But that wasn’t enough to overcome injuries and other shortcomings on that side of the ball, and with the team losing seven games by four points or less, the final 6-10 mark was just the franchise’s second losing season dating back to 1992.
That led to a series of changes on the coaching staff, most of them on defense, as McCarthy hired Dom Capers as his new defensive coordinator to institute a switch to a 3-4 scheme. The players responded faster than most predicted in 2009, climbing all the way to No. 2 in the league in yards allowed and No. 1 against the run for the first time in team history, setting a franchise record for the fewest rushing yards allowed per game (83.3).
That defensive prowess was highlighted by Woodson winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, rookie Clay Matthews leading the team in sacks, and Collins joining both as Pro Bowl honorees. Combined with another dynamic season on offense – as the quartet of Rodgers, Grant, Jennings and Driver repeated their feat of the prior year and a new franchise record for points (461) was established – the Packers won seven of their final eight regular-season games to finish 11-5 and earn an NFC Wild Card playoff berth.
Rodgers earned his first Pro Bowl nod and made a memorable postseason debut, throwing for a Green Bay postseason-record 423 yards and record-tying four TDs as he rallied the Packers from a 21-point second-half deficit. Emerging tight end Jermichael Finley also set a team playoff mark with 159 yards receiving and tied a team postseason record with nine receptions.
Ultimately the Packers came up short, however, dropping a 51-45 overtime heartbreaker in Arizona, the highest-scoring postseason game in NFL history. But the disappointment fueled a determination and the late-season surge sparked a genuine optimism heading into 2010.
That optimism led to high expectations, and the Packers became a popular preseason pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Boasting both a deep and maturing roster, and relative scheme continuity on both sides of the ball, Green Bay was primed for a deep playoff run.
The team got out to a 3-1 start in the season’s first quarter, but injuries to key players mounted. Grant, a back-to-back 1,200-yard rusher, was lost for the season in Week 1. Finley, the team’s leading receiver entering Week 5, was also placed on injured reserve, as was linebacker Nick Barnett, the third all-time leading tackler in franchise history. By season’s end, the Packers would place 15 players on the season-ending injured list.
Despite the injuries, the Packers never blinked. Rodgers led the offense by posting a quarterback rating of 101.2. Jennings finished with 1,265 yards and earned his first selection to the Pro Bowl. Defensively, the Packers ranked No. 2 in the NFL in scoring defense at 15.0 points per game. Matthews, who racked up 13½ sacks, was voted a Pro Bowl starter and a consensus first-team All-Pro and was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year by various publications. In the secondary, Woodson set career highs in tackles and forced fumbles, becoming the team’s emotional leader throughout. His counterpart at corner, Tramon Williams, led the team with six interceptions, earning his first bid to the Pro Bowl, where he was joined by Collins, who was chosen for the third consecutive year.
The Packers’ six losses came by a combined 20 points, and they became the first team since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 to never trail a game by more than seven points over an entire season. They finished the regular season with a 10-6 record and secured the sixth and final seed in the NFC’s playoff bracket.
Taking to the road for the NFC playoffs, the Packers started by winning the opening-round Wild Card game at Philadelphia by a score of 21-16. The following week they traveled to Atlanta to take on the top-seeded Falcons. After an initial back and forth, Green Bay exploded with a 28-point second quarter and never looked back. On the strength of a near-flawless display of quarterbacking by Rodgers (31 of 36 for 366 yards and three TDs), and two crucial interceptions by Williams, the Packers hammered the Falcons, 48-21, the second-largest margin of victory in team postseason history.
For the NFC championship, the Packers faced their division rival, the Chicago Bears, for a chance to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1997 season. The Packers got out to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. The opportunistic defense forced three Chicago turnovers, highlighted by an improbable 18-yard interception return for a touchdown by NT B.J. Raji that put Green Bay ahead, 21-7, late in the fourth quarter. Rookie CB Sam Shields sealed the 21-14 win on the Bears’ final drive, making his second interception of the game to send the franchise to its fifth Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl pitted the Packers against the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers. In what was billed as a matchup between two renowned 3-4 defenses, it was the Green Bay offense, led once again by Rodgers, that was the difference. The Packers stormed out to a 21-3 lead in the first half, with two touchdowns coming off the arm of Rodgers and one on an interception return by Collins. Under circumstances reflective of the entire season, the Packers were forced to overcome injuries, as veteran stalwarts Driver and Woodson were both ruled out of the game late in the first half.
The Steelers fought their way back, but a forced fumble by Matthews at the start of the fourth quarter led to another Rodgers touchdown pass. Forcing a turnover on downs on Pittsburgh’s final drive, the Packers won the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl, 31-25.
In the months that followed the season, both Thompson and McCarthy were rewarded with multi-year contract extensions.
With a franchise quarterback, a nucleus of young veterans and a 10-man draft class, all eyes were set on the quest for another title in 2011.
Due to a league-wide work stoppage that began in early March, the Packers were deprived of an offseason program and the players first convened as a team at the start of training camp in late July.
Despite an abbreviated training camp schedule, the Packers picked up where they left off in early February. Beginning with the NFL’s season-opening Thursday night spectacle against the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field, the Packers stormed through the regular season, reeling off a team-record 13 consecutive wins en route to a franchise-best 15-1 record. The team became just the sixth in NFL history to reach the 15-win plateau, and when combining the start of 2011 with the six wins that closed out 2010, the 19-game winning streak was the longest in team history and second longest in league annals.
The franchise laid claim to its first NFC North title since 2007 and secured the NFC’s No. 1 seed for the playoffs. Throughout the season, the recipe for success was written by Rodgers and a prolific offense that scored 560 points, the third-highest total in league history.
Rodgers earned the league’s Most Valuable Player award and consensus first-team all-pro honors from almost every major publication. His 122.5 cumulative passer rating set a new NFL record and he also eclipsed the previous franchise single-season marks for yards, touchdowns, completion percentage, yards per attempt and 300-yard games.
The Packers led the NFL with 31 interceptions, the most by a Green Bay team since 1962. Woodson tied for the NFL lead with seven INTs. The defense’s 38 takeaways tied for the league lead and helped contribute to the team’s plus-24 differential in the turnover department, a mark that also tied for No. 2 in franchise history.
Joining Rodgers, Woodson and Matthews in the Pro Bowl were Jennings, FB John Kuhn, Raji and C Scott Wells, giving the Packers seven representatives, the most voted in for the franchise since 1967.
In the postseason, Green Bay fell victim to uncharacteristic, costly turnovers in its only contest, and lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants in the divisional round, 37-20. The loss to the Giants left a foul taste in the team’s collective mouth as they entered the offseason with a renewed focus on the ultimate prize in 2012.
The Packers entered the 2012 campaign with a focus upon getting the team to peak at the right time.
With that in mind, the club recovered from a 2-3 start to win 9 of 10 games in Weeks 6-16 and put itself in prime position for the postseason. With a win at Chicago in Week 15, the Packers secured the franchise’s first back-to-back NFC North titles since it captured three straight from 2002-04.
During the regular season, a Rodgers-led offense ranked No. 5 in the league in scoring despite being plagued by injuries throughout the season. Five different players started at running back in addition to five different combinations on the offensive line, and primary targets Jennings and WR Jordy Nelson missed 12 full games combined and parts of others with various ailments.
Defensively, the Packers climbed to No. 11 in pass defense on the strength of an 81-yard-per-game improvement over the previous season.
Despite suffering a hamstring injury that shelved him for a month, Matthews became the first player in franchise history to be named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first four seasons in the league.
The defense was also aided by second-round pick CB Casey Hayward, who led the team and all NFL rookies with six interceptions.
Finishing the season with an 11-5 record, the Packers were NFC North champions, laid claim to the No. 3 seed in the NFC and a Wild Card matchup with the division-rival Minnesota Vikings. The game marked the two teams’ third meeting over a six-week stretch, and the defense managed to keep league MVP Adrian Peterson in check while Rodgers and the offense built a 24-3 margin en route to a 24-10 victory.
In the following week’s divisional-round contest at San Francisco, the 49ers’ offense proved too much for Green Bay to handle, and despite only trailing 24-21 at halftime, a second-half surge saw the Packers ultimately fall, 45-31. The Green Bay offseason was highlighted by long-term contract extensions for both Matthews and Rodgers.
The Packers welcomed the 2013 campaign and an upgraded facility that was highlighted by the addition of 6,700 new seats.
In 2013 the Packers were beseiged by injuries to key players at a host of positions. Bryan Bulaga, Randall Cobb, Finley, Hayward and Matthews all missed significant portions of the season. However, the most devastating blow came against the Bears in Week 9, when Rodgers suffered a broken collarbone that would sideline him for the ensuing seven games, a stretch that saw the team post a 2-4-1 record during his absence.
Despite the volume of adversity, there were a number of positives. First and foremost was the emergence of rookie RB Eddie Lacy, who powered the Packers to the No. 7-ranked rush offense in the league and led all NFL rookies with 284 carries, 1,178 yards (4.1 avg.) and 11 TDs, all team rookie records. Lacy earned a bid to the Pro Bowl, was named second-team All-Pro by AP, and became the first Packer since RB John Brockington in 1971 to be voted the recipient of the AP’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Another bright spot was the play of backup QB Matt Flynn, who breathed life into the staggering team, keeping its playoff hopes alive with comeback victories in Weeks 14-15.
Rodgers returned in Week 17 with the Packers needing a victory at the archrival Bears to advance to the postseason. With the season on the line in the waning moments of the finale, Rodgers escaped pressure on a fourth-and-8 play and found Cobb wide open downfield for a game-winning 48-yard TD, clinching the Packers’ third consecutive NFC North division title and earning the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.
The Packers welcomed San Francisco to Lambeau Field for the Wild Card game. With the game tied at 20-20 late in the fourth quarter, the 49ers burned the remaining 5:06 off the clock, and kicked a game-winning 33-yard field goal as time expired.
With an offseason to rest and nine new additions through the draft, the Packers were ready to hit the ground running in 2014.
After road losses in two of the first three games of the 2014 season, the Packers won each of the next four games. The winning streak was fueled by an offense that put up at least 38 points in three of the contests. Over the four games, Rodgers threw 13 TDs and zero INTs, setting the pace for a season that would result in him being named the NFL MVP by AP for the second time in his career.
After a loss at New Orleans, Green Bay returned to Lambeau after the bye week to register wins over Chicago and Philadelphia as it became the second team in NFL history (Los Angeles Rams, 1950) to score 53-plus points in back-to-back games.
The Packers went back on the road to take on division foe Minnesota and came away with a 24-21 victory that was powered by Lacy’s season-high 125 rushing yards and two TDs. Green Bay hosted New England the next week in a battle of two of the NFL’s best teams and quarterbacks. Rodgers and Tom Brady both recorded passer ratings over 100.0, and Green Bay edged the eventual Super Bowl champs, 26-21. In Week 14, the Packers used a 31-point first half to hold off a Falcons team that scored 30 points in the second half, to win 43-37.
Green Bay’s five-game winning streak came to an end in Buffalo, as the Packers fell to the Bills, 21-13. Green Bay rebounded the next week in Tampa Bay with a 20-3 victory in which the defense sacked Josh McCown seven times and held the Bucs to 109 total net yards.
The Packers entered the final game of the regular season against the Lions with the NFC North title on the line. Green Bay built a 14-0 lead, but Rodgers re-injured the calf he hurt the previous week on his 4-yard TD pass to Cobb. Matthew Stafford connected with Calvin Johnson on two TDs to tie the game at 14. Rodgers, who returned to the game after a visit to the locker room to treat his calf, would find Cobb for another TD and sneak one in from a yard out to give Green Bay a 28-14 lead. The Packers held on for a 30-20 victory, capturing their franchise-record fourth straight division title.
Green Bay completed the regular season tied for first in the NFL with a 12-4 record, including an unblemished 8-0 at home. Rodgers threw 24 touchdowns with zero interceptions at Lambeau, joining Brady (2003) as the only QBs in NFL history to throw 200-plus passes at home in a single regular season with no INTs. Rodgers’ set an NFL record with a 133.2 passer rating at home during the regular season.
The Packers’ home success during the regular season continued into the divisional round when they hosted the Dallas Cowboys. Green Bay rallied from an eight-point deficit in the second half to take a 26-21 lead. With under five minutes to play, Dallas faced a fourth-and-2 at the Packers’ 32-yard line and QB Tony Romo launched a pass to leaping WR Dez Bryant that was initially ruled a completion at the Green Bay 1-yard line. After replay review, the call was overturned and the Packers converted two third downs to secure the victory. The season came to an end the following week in Seattle after the Seahawks rallied in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to beat the Packers, 28-22, in overtime.
Green Bay used the offseason to lock up free agents Cobb and T Bryan Bulaga, setting them up for another run in 2015.
The Packers entered the 2015 regular season short-handed after losing Pro Bowl WR Jordy Nelson to a season-ending knee injury in the preseason. Green Bay overcame the loss early in the season, starting 6-0 for just the fourth time since 1945.
The winning streak involved a victory at Chicago in Week 1, followed by prime-time wins at Lambeau Field over Seattle and Kansas City. In Week 4, the Packers won a defensive battle at San Francisco, 17-3. Green Bay returned to Lambeau and completed the 6-0 start with victories over St. Louis (24-10) and San Diego (27-20). The Week 6 contest saw Rodgers go over the 30,000-yard passing mark for his career on just 3,652 attempts, the fewest needed in NFL history.
After the bye week, the Packers dropped three consecutive games, losing on the road to two undefeated teams, Denver and Carolina, and then came up two points short to Detroit at home. Green Bay got back on track with a 30-13 win at Minnesota.
Green Bay honored Hall of Famer Brett Favre by unveiling his name and retired No. 4 during halftime of the Packers’ first home Thanksgiving game since 1923. The night would end with a four-point loss to the Bears.
Green Bay found itself in another tight game the next week in Detroit. Trailing by two points, Rodgers launched a 61-yard pass that would connect with a leaping TE Richard Rodgers in the end zone as time expired to give Green Bay a 27-23 victory.
Green Bay returned home to beat Dallas, 28-7, and then traveled to defeat the Oakland Raiders, 30-20. The Packers finished the regular season with a road loss to Arizona (38-8) and a home loss to Minnesota (20-13).
The Packers’ 10-6 record earned them the No. 5 seed in the postseason and trip to take on NFC East champion Washington. A 35-18 victory over the Redskins advanced Green Bay to the divisional round of the playoffs. Nearly three weeks after losing at Arizona, Green Bay returned to the desert for a postseason meeting with the Cardinals. After a back-and-forth game, the Packers found themselves down seven and 41 yards away from the end zone with time for one play. Aaron Rodgers heaved a pass to the end zone that WR Jeff Janis leaped to grab and the game went into overtime. For the second consecutive year, Green Bay’s season would end on the first possession of overtime as Arizona went 80 yards in three plays to score a touchdown and win the game, 26-20.
The offseason saw former Packer QB Brett Favre elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Green Bay re-signed the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, K Mason Crosby, and added veteran TE Jared Cook as well as seven draft picks to take another shot at winning a title in 2016.
After starting the season 3-1, the Packers dropped five of the next six games to sit at 4-6 entering a road Monday night game at Philadelphia. Green Bay faced long odds of winning a division which was led by Detroit and Minnesota, who both sat with 6-4 records at the time. The Packers started to turn their season around by ending a four-game slide with a 27-13 win over the Eagles.
Green Bay returned home to face two future playoff teams, Houston and Seattle, in Weeks 13-14. After winning a tight game against the Texans, 21-13, the Packers beat the Seahawks, 38-10, but at 6-6, found themselves two games back of the division-leading Lions (8-4).
Green Bay finished the regular season with three games against divsional foes, first winning, 30-27, at Chicago and avenging an early-season loss to Minnesota with a 38-25 win at home. It set up the regular-season finale at Detroit, and a 31-24 victory gave the Packers their fifth division title in the last six years. The six-game winning streak was the longest by the Packers to end a regular season since 1941 (nine games).
Green Bay beat the New York Giants at home, 38-13, in the Wild Card round, and then traveled to play Dallas in the divisional round. After building a 21-3 lead in the first half, the Packers used two 50-plus-yard field goals from Crosby in the final minutes, including a 51-yarder as time expired, to win, 34-31. Green Bay appeared in an NFC-leading fourth NFC Championship since 2007, but lost, 44-21, at Atlanta.